ADVICE

FROM
KYABJE ZOPA
RINPOCHE ON
HOW TO MAKE
WATER BOWL
OFFERINGS AS
A PRELIMINARY
PRACTICE




 1. MOTIVATION FOR OFFERING WATER
BOWLS

Normally one has seven bowls on the altar, but you can have any
amount, less or more, even 100, or more; it is really up to what
you can do. You could have even just one, a crystal bowl, let’s say.
You would offer water in the bowls in front of a statue or
image of any deity you like, with whom you feel a connection,
such as Tara or Buddha.

WHETHER OUR ACTIONS ARE VIRTUOUS OR

NONVIRTUOUS DEPENDS ON THE MOTIVATION
But first the motivation. Whether one’s actions become virtue or
nonvirtue depends on the motivation.

THE BEST MOTIVATION: BODHICITTA

Think: The purpose of my life is to free the numberless sentient
beings – including worms, insects, animals, etc. – from the
oceans of samsaric suffering and bring them to full
enlightenment, by myself alone.
To do this I need to achieve full enlightenment, therefore I
need to actualize the whole path, from correctly following the
Virtuous Friend up to the unified state of Vajradhara.
To actualize that, I need all the conditions to collect merit,
purify negative karma, and receive the blessings of the guru in
my heart; then I can get realizations.
Therefore, I will offer water to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and
Sangha, for sentient beings.

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 ACTIONS DONE WITH ATTACHMENT TO THIS LIFE
ARE NOT VIRTUOUS
Making offerings because we are looking for happiness now in
this life, simply attachment to this life’s happiness, is actually a
pure nonvirtue. Attachment to this life is pure nonvirtue, and any
action done from that mind becomes nonvirtue; any action of
one’s body, speech and mind becomes nonvirtue when it is done
with this motivation.
The motivation should not be stained by attachment to this
life, clinging to this life.
When our motivation is free from this, when our mind is free
from attachment to this life, the actions become pure virtue.
Then every action of one’s body, speech and mind becomes
virtue, pure Dharma.

ACTIONS DONE WITH ATTACHMENT TO THE NEXT

LIFE ARE NOT RENUNCIATION
Nor should actions be done with the motivation seeking future
life happiness; they should not be stained by attachment to
seeking future life happiness.
Even though with this motivation our actions are not stained
by the attachment to this life, still the actions of one’s body,
speech and mind don’t become the cause of liberation from
oceans of samsara, that is, nirvana.
If our actions are done with this motivation, it is not
renunciation of future lives’ samsara.

ACTIONS DONE WITH RENUNCIATION OF SAMSARA

ARE THE CAUSE OF LIBERATION
Actions that are unstained by, free from, the attachment clinging
to next life happiness are actions done with renunciation of
samsara. Actions of one’s body, speech and mind done with this
motivation become the cause of liberation, nirvana.

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 ACTIONS DONE WITH BODHICITTA ARE THE CAUSE
OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Actions of one’s body, speech that are done with a motivation
unstained by self-cherishing thought, with bodhicitta – the
thought of cherishing others who are numberless – all become
the cause of enlightenment, the cessation of all one’s
obscurations and the completion of all the realizations.
Actions done with self-cherishing thought do not become the
cause of enlightenment, full enlightenment, the great liberation,
full enlightenment.

ACTIONS DONE WITH THE THOUGHT OF EMPTINESS

ARE THE CAUSE OF CUTTING THE ROOT OF
SAMSARA
Also, you should make the offerings with the mindfulness of the
ultimate wisdom realizing emptiness. Meditating on emptiness is
the only thing that directly eliminates the root of samsara,
ignorance.
There are different ignorances. Here, the ignorance referred to
is the ignorance of believing that the self, the I, totally exists from
its own side; that there is an existent self, or existent nature.
In fact, the I is not there; you can look for it, from the tip of
your hairs down to your toes, but it’s not there, that real I is not
there.
In reality, relating to the aggregates, the I exists in mere
name; it is merely labelled. That’s the reality. But the self is
projected, it is decorated on top of the aggregates by the
hallucinated mind. This ignorance causes your I to appear real.

OFFER THE WATER BOWLS WTH THE VIEW OF

EMPTINESS
Making the offerings such as water bowls in this way – seeing
them as empty – becomes the best Dharma; this actually
becomes the antidote to samsara, the suffering realm. It becomes
the antidote to ignorance, the root of samsara; this is the antidote
that directly eradicates ignorance.
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 Think the real action of offering is not there. It’s similar with
the Buddha, Dharma Sangha: they are not there; they are not
truly existent, not existent from their own side. What we think as
real Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are not there.
With this mindfulness, this recognition – thinking that all of
this is empty – you make the offerings.

MAKE THE OFFERINGS AS IF IN A DREAM

You can think that you are making the offerings as if you were in
a dream; as if making the offerings is being done in a dream. But
you recognize the dream as a dream; while you are dreaming you
are making the offerings, and you recognize this as a dream.
So, nothing is real, nothing is existing from its own side.

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 2. HOW TO MAKE THE OFFERINGS

COVER YOUR MOUTH

In order to not pollute the water with impure, dirty breath, and
to keep the bowls clean, you must cover your mouth with a white
cloth, such as an offering scarf (kata). If you don’t have a white
scarf, you can use a face mask, this is also possible.

EMPTY THE BOWLS

Before setting up new offerings, you have to take down the old
offerings. This water should be treated with great respect because
it has been blessed and offered to all the buddhas. You should
empty it in a clean place where people or animals don’t step on it.

CLEAN THE BOWLS
Wipe the bowls with clean towels. It’s best to use two towels:
with one in one hand you hold the outside of the bowl, and with
the second towel in the other hand you dry the inside of the bowl.
You could use just one towel for wiping the inside of the bowl,
but best is to use two towels.
It is important to use towels that don’t leave fluff or hairs on
the bowls.

HOW TO THINK WHEN YOU CLEAN THE BOWLS

When you dry the inside and outside of the bowl, clean well and
at that time you can think you are cleaning away all your
obscurations and all sentient beings’ obscurations, all the
negative karma.
Think that the towels are the whole path to enlightenment, the
essence of method and wisdom.

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 STACK THE BOWLS
As you clean each bowl, pile them up one on top of the other,
facing upwards. If you are not going to fill the bowls right away –
if you can’t offer water immediately or you don’t have water right
there – you should put a towel on top of the stack so that the top
bowl is not facing up empty on the altar.

PURIFY THE BOWLS WITH INCENSE

Before you fill the bowls you should purify each bowl with
incense while reciting OM AH HUM.

PREPARE THE BOWLS FOR THE OFFERING

With a clean jug filled with clean saffron water you pour some
water into the top bowl of the stack.
As you pour the water, recite OM AH HUM. You can visualize
these three syllables stacked above each bowl. White OM
symbolizes the blessings of the Buddha’s holy body. Red AH
symbolizes the blessings of the Buddha’s holy speech. Blue HUM
symbolizes the blessings of the Buddha’s holy mind.
Think the blessings of all the buddhas’ holy body, speech, and
mind absorb to these three syllables and they absorb into the
water, blessing and transforming it.
Then, from the first bowl you pour most of the water into the
second bowl, leaving a small amount in the first bowl.
Next, you place the first bowl on the altar.
Then, from the second bowl again you pour most of the water
into the third bowl, leaving some in the second bowl.
Now you place the second bowl on the altar.
Like this, pouring most of the water into the next bowl and
placing the preceding bowl on the altar with a small amount of
water in it, so that none of them are ever empty.

DO NOT OFFER EMPTY BOWLS

The reason you don’t put empty bowls on the altar at any time –
in other words, offering bowls without anything inside – is
because it causes poverty.
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 Poverty is referring to two things: outside poverty and inside
poverty. Outer poverty refers to having no means of living and
inner poverty refers to having no realizations.
In the same way that you first put a little water in the bowl
before you put it on the altar, when you make mandala offerings
you hold the mandala base with a little grain in your hand so that
you’re not offering it while it is empty; and you also put a little
grain on the base.
Also, Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, who is one of my
gurus, explained to me that if you put an empty bowl on the altar
even for a moment, smell-eaters build a city inside the bowl.

PLACE THE BOWLS WITH THE WIDTH OF A RICE

GRAIN BETWEEN THEM
You place each bowl on the altar one by one, lined up beautifully,
about the width of a rice grain apart.
Make sure that they are not touching each other: this creates
the cause for your mind to become dull.
Nor should they be too far away from each other, as this
creates the karma to be separated from the gurus, to be distant
from or to not meet the gurus.

PERFORM THE OFFERINGS BEAUTIFULLY

Now you pour the rest of the water respectfully and beautifully
into each bowl, reciting OM AH HUM.
Performing the offerings beautifully has two meanings: the
main one is to make pure offerings, which means not doing them
with the five wrong livelihoods (see chapter 5, page 16); and the
second meaning is for them to be beautiful on the outside.
You fill each one with the saffron water, starting from the
right [from the perspective] of the holy objects.
You should not fill the bowls to the very top. Often water
bowls from Nepal have a line around the top of the inside of the
bowl that indicates where your fill the water up to. If you don’t
have a bowl like this, make sure you leave a little space below the
rim of the bowl.
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 The stream of water in the beginning should be a small
stream, in the middle a bigger stream, and the end again a small
stream.
And you should pour without violence or any big noise. The
pouring of the water should not make a lot of noise because it
disturbs your mind, creating the cause for your mind to not be
peaceful.
Making the water bowl offerings very softly and gently causes
your mind to become subdued and gentle; it has that effect. If the
water offering is not made in a soft and gentle way then I think it
causes you to become very hardened, thick-skulled; hard, not a
soft, not a subdued mind. By offering in a soft way your mind
becomes more compassionate, more of a loving nature, not
tough.
Also, offering with renunciation causes one to become more
content.
Making offerings like this has all these benefits in particular;
and then generally also it causes the good heart and, ultimately,
bodhicitta.

RECITE THE CLOUDS OF OFFERINGS MANTRA

Next you can recite the Clouds of Offerings mantra.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMARDANE /

TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAKSAM BUDDHAYA /
TADYATHA / OM VAJRE VAJRE / MAHA VAJRE / MAHA TEJA
VAJRE / MAHA VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICHITTA VAJRE /
MAHA BODHI MÄNDO PASAM KRAMANA VAJRE / SARVA
KARMA AVARANA VISHO DHANA VAJRE SVAHA

As you recite this mantra you visualize the water bowl

offerings as oceans of nectar and they are numberless. Then it
appears this way to the Buddhas.
(See chapter 3, page 11 for the benefits of this mantra.)

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 RECITE THE POWER OF TRUTH
Then you can recite The Extensive Power of the Truth.

By the power of truth of the Three Rare Sublime Ones,

The blessings of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas,
The great wealth of the completed two collections,
And the sphere of phenomena being pure and
inconceivable;
May these piles of clouds of offerings arising through
transformation
By the bodhisattvas Arya Samantabhadra, Manjushri,
and so forth –
Unimaginable and inexhaustible, equaling the sky –
Arise and, in the eyes of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of
the ten directions, be received.

The benefit of reciting The Power of Truth when making

offerings is that it causes the buddhas and bodhisattvas to
actually receive as many offerings as you visualize. In other
words, by reciting this prayer, if you visualize whatever offerings
you are making have filled the whole sky, then it appears to the
buddhas as that much.
That means no matter how poor you are, even if you can offer
only a small bottle of water; or even if you can offer only your
own bowl that you eat your food from or your own cup that you
drink your tea from, as long as you clean them very well and then
fill them up with water and visualize them as ocean of nectar
offerings, by reciting the Power of Truth they become just as you
visualized.
This extended version of the prayer elaborates upon the last
line, which usually reads, “May all these offerings become just
so.” The benefit [of reciting this extensive version of The Power
of Truth] is that by describing the vast offerings equaling the sky
it helps you visualize them better and then this is what the
buddhas and bodhisattvas actually receive.

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 3. THE BENEFITS OF RECITING THE
CLOUDS OF OFFERINGS MANTRA

THIS MANTRA NOT ONLY BLESSES BUT ALSO

MULTIPLIES THE OFFERINGS
There are numberless buddhas and by reciting this mantra each
buddha receives skies of offerings. That’s why it’s called the the
Clouds of Offerings mantra.
This mantra has two functions: blessing and increasing.
Therefore, it is not only for blessing the offerings; it also has the
power to multiply them.

OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAJRA SARA PRAMARDANE /

TATHAGATAYA / ARHATE SAMYAKSAM BUDDHAYA /
TADYATHA / OM VAJRE VAJRE / MAHA VAJRE / MAHA TEJA
VAJRE / MAHA VIDYA VAJRE / MAHA BODHICHITTA VAJRE /
MAHA BODHI MÄNDO PASAM KRAMANA VAJRE / SARVA
KARMA AVARANA VISHO DHANA VAJRE SVAHA

By reciting this mantra as you make the offerings, each water

bowl you offer becomes [vast] like clouds gathered in the sky.
When you go by plane the whole sky is covered by clouds, so it is
like that: numberless offerings. Therefore, just one water bowl
becomes numberless offerings.
If you offer even one stick of incense with that mantra it
becomes numberless sticks of incense; if you offer one light with
that mantra it becomes numberless light offerings.
So you can recite this mantra for any offering: flowers, food
etc.

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 THE EIGHT BENEFITS OF RECITING THE CLOUDS OF
OFFERINGS MANTRA
There are eight benefits of reciting this mantra explained in the
Buddha’s teachings, the Kangyur.
1. The minute you remember this mantra, you gain the benefit
of having made offerings to all the buddhas abiding in the ten
directions equaling the number of the atoms of the sand grains of
the Pacific Ocean.
Can you imagine? It means that whether you offer just one
stick of incense, one light offering, one fruit or one biscuit, you
get the benefit of offering to all these buddhas.
Not just to as many buddhas as there are grains of sand in the
Pacific Ocean, but as many buddhas as there are atoms in each
these grains of sand! That means we gain unimaginable,
inconceivable merit!
And by doing so, we create that many causes of enlightenment
and, by the way, liberation from samsara, happiness of future
lives, and so on.
2. You get the benefit of having prostrated to the holy feet of
all those buddhas. You can see that the benefits of this mantra
are beyond our imagination!
3. You receive the benefit of having made offering of flowers,
incense, garlands of flowers, ornaments, ointments, Dharma
robes, umbrellas, banners, flags, animals (these are offered to the
protectors) sitting cloths (such as the ding-wa that the monastics
sit on), divine dress, food, various ornaments and so forth to all
the buddhas abiding in the ten directions.
4. You are freed from all negative karmas (in other words,
reciting the mantra becomes great purification).
5. You gain all the merits.
6. You you will see all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and they
will “give you breath.”

This means that due to all this merit and purification

sooner or later you will be able to see all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas and they will liberate you – “give breath” or
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 “free the breath”: it’s like when someone is suffocating
because they can’t breathe so you give them breath. That
is like giving them life or freedom, liberating them.
When we take the tantric vows it talks about
“liberating those who are not yet liberated from their
delusions,” “liberating those who are not yet liberated
from the subtle defilements,” and “liberating those who
are still suffering in samsara.”
Particularly those in the lower realms who are
suffocated by all that suffering. To these beings who are
experiencing the heaviest suffering of the lower realms, “I
will give breath,” which means I will liberate them from
the sufferings of the lower realm, the hell realms.
So “giving breath” means liberating or giving
freedom.

7. You will be protected by nagas, devas, nöjin –

Nöjin is literally “harm-giver,” but in this context it

doesn’t actually mean giving harm, but giving protection
from harm.
For example, the Medicine Buddha has twelve great
groups of nöjin in his entourage. Simply by making
offerings every day to the Medicine Buddha you are
protected by those twelve great groups of nöjin, and they
are surrounded by seven hundred protectors who also
protect you.
Also, Namthose’s entourage has nöjin. There are many
types of nöjin, maybe some give harm; but here they are
protecting you from harm.

You will also be protected from smell-eaters (those who have

died and been reborn in the intermediate state, whom we give
food to in the sur – burnt offering – practice), asuras, garudas,
myemchi (not clear what these are), dorje chenpo (maybe the
name of a naga), Vajrapani the Owner of the Secrecy (Vajrapani’s
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 name), and the Four Guardians (who are visualized at the bottom
of the Lama Chöpa merit field). They will always follow you
perfectly, protect you and guide you. If others try to inflict harm,
they will hide you from it.
8. When you die, your consciousness will transfer from this
world to Amitabha Buddha’s pure land, the Blissful Realm,
where there is no suffering and where you can get enlightened.
You receive all these qualities and benefits just by
remembering this mantra once, without any need to do retreat.
Sometimes you might wonder how it is possible that there
could be such a mantra that can bring all these benefits. The
reason is because Buddha has inconceivable qualities. Buddha is
free from all the defilements, gross and subtle, and complete in
all the qualities. Because of this, Buddha has inconceivable power
and quality. Buddha can endow this mantra with power and
dedicate it for us sentient beings to have an easy way to get
extensive benefit and receive all the happiness. This is what we
have to understand.

YOU CAN RECITE THE MANTRA BEFORE EATING

I often recite this mantra. I even try to recite it before eating,
although it is not commonly recited as a food offering prayer.
After the food is blessed using the highest yoga tantra blessing, I
try to recite this mantra.

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 4. MEDITATE THAT YOU ARE OFFERING
THE PUREST NECTAR TO THE GURU

In the view of us humans the offering is water; in the view of

pretas, the hungry ghosts, it is pus and blood; and in the view of
devas it is nectar.
However, in the view of Buddha it is the purest nectar.
Because Buddha has totally purified all the gross and subtle
obscurations, even the subtle negative imprints, and has
completed all the realizations, for him everything appears the
purest. The water appears as nectar in the nature of the greatest
bliss non-dual with emptiness.
So think that what you are offering is what appears to the
Buddha.
Then think that however many holy objects you have are all
the manifestation of your root guru. One picture of the Lama
Chöpa merit field, for instance, has so many holy beings in it –
all the different lineage lamas, the deities of the four classes of
tantra, so many bodhisattvas, arhats, dakas, dakinis and dharma
protectors.
As you are pouring water in each bowl, think that you are
offering to them as your guru, and that it generates infinite bliss
non-dual with emptiness within them.
This is what you think when you fill up each bowl. This is the
most important meditation. In this way you create not just merit
but the highest merit. The merit you create by offering all the
universes filled with jewels to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is
nothing compared with the merit you create by making offerings
to the guru. You create the cause to achieve full enlightenment in
the quickest way possible.

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 5. MAKE OFFERINGS BEAUTIFULLY

There are six preparations of practice, then there is the actual

body of meditation, and then the completion, the dedication of
merits to achieve enlightenment for sentient beings.
The second of the six preparations of practice is to offer
without being crooked, to perform beautifully. This has two
meanings: the first is to not offer with a crooked motivation,
which is when making the offerings causes mistakes.
For example, a monk or nun living in the ordination of
renunciation but trying to make the offerings through the five
wrong livelihoods; or even a lay person doing that.
Or if you obtain the offerings from killing animals and things
like that; or by cheating others by measurement, which means
you cheat others with wrong measurements.
Or one makes the offering by harming or cheating sentient
beings.
It is better to not make the offering than to offer in this way,
as it is very negative.
The meaning of offering is puja and puja means to please all
the victorious buddhas and bodhisattvas with the offerings. If the
offerings come from negative causes, then how can the buddhas
and bodhisattvas be pleased? There is no way.
However, if you have already done the offering, then you need
to purify [for] yourself and others.

THE FIVE WRONG LIVELIHOODS

What are the five wrong livelihoods?
1. Flattery (“collecting from the mouth”). This means making
offerings with the hope that the benefactor will give you
something; you flatter or play with words and then the
benefactor gives the material.

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 That is the first wrong livelihood. Kyabje Pabongka Dechen
Nyingpo, the great enlightened Heruka yogi said: “Without such
a motivation, with a straight mind, being skillful and talking to
the benefactor and then the benefactor gives the material, then it
doesn’t become wrong livelihood.”
I think what that means is if the motivation is not to cheat the
benefactor, especially without self-cherishing thought.
2. Hinting (“begging by the way with desire”). This means
receiving material offerings from the benefactor and then telling
the benefactor, “I have the tea and the butter (for Tibetan tea)
but I have less grain, I have a scarcity of grain and the grain you
gave me in the past was extremely beneficial.”
So this is “begging by the way.” Begging for grain, for tsampa
flour, “by the way.” It means trying to get something and not
saying it directly.
Kyabje Dechen Pabongka said: “If without the motivation of
desiring the offering you say directly, rather than indirectly, and
then the benefactor gives you offerings, then it doesn’t become
the second wrong livelihood of “begging by the way.”
3. Giving in order to receive (“seeking material things by
giving material things”). Kyabje Dechen Pabongka said this
means: “If you give something small to others in the hope of
getting some much bigger material from them.”
For example, you give your benefactor your scarf or tea pot of
tea (this is talking about Tibetan culture) but your main aim in
your heart is to receive something huge in return.
Nowadays we do that a lot; we put a very good strong hook in,
precisely to get something better. So this is wrong livelihood.
But without such a motivation, making an offering with a
straight mind to the benefactor doesn’t become wrong livelihood.
4. Exerting pressure on others (“paying by receiving”). This
refers to while others desire it, you beg precisely for that.
Or something you planned to offer to others, then you change
what you are offering and give to yourself.

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 Or you tell the benefactor that this person or benefactor gave
you food and it was so beneficial. You are trying to beg indirectly,
trying to get something indirectly. This is “paying by receiving.”
But doing this without the motivation of desiring to receive
material doesn’t become a wrong livelihood. Without that, and
with a straight mind, expressing to the other person doesn’t
become the wrong livelihood of “paying by receiving.”
5. Being on one’s best behavior (“acting like it is taught”). An
example of this is acting at your own house, like you do
something in front of others a certain way, like benefactors and
so forth, and you pretend or show pure moral conduct, show a
very subdued mind, thinking that others will give you some
material because of it.
But without such a motivation, instead thinking that if I do a
certain action a lay person will get upset or lose faith so I can’t do
it, and then trying to be pure in conduct – this doesn’t become
the wrong livelihood of “acting like it is taught.”
The sublime object of refuge precious guru Kyabje Pabongka
Dechen Nyingpo mentioned: “Those of us who are living in
ordination of renunciation, if we break the pratimoksha,
bodhisattva, or tantra vows and we do business, we create the
cause of offerings by doing business, then making offerings
creates more shortcomings than benefits.

THE EIGHT WORLDLY DHARMAS

A crooked motivation for offering means it is done with
attachment to this life; making offerings so that other people can
see, so that they will praise me.
Or thinking that making this offering will cause me to have a
long life, to not have disease: that means it is for the happiness of
this life.
These motivations are from the eight worldly dharmas, which
means the action is impure, non-virtuous, and creates the cause
of rebirth in the lower realms, and so forth. And it doesn’t
become holy dharma.

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 For example, in his early life Kadampa Geshe Bengyul was a
very famous thief in the night time and robber in the day time.
He would wear many weapons around his waist; he robbed forty
sacks of grain, for example, and created so much negative
karmas. Later be began to practice dharma.
One day in his hermitage he heard that his benefactor was
coming to see him, so in the morning he cleaned his room and
beautifully performed many nice offerings, setting up more than
usual, thinking, “Today my benefactor is going to come.”
Then he sat down on his bed and checked his motivation. He
found that everything was done with a crooked motivation. He
suddenly recognized that these beautifully performed offerings
had been done for appearances, for the benefactor. He
recognized that it was not become holy dharma, it was worldly
dharma, pure non virtue.
Then he immediately got up and took the ashes from the fire
place and sprinkled them all over the beautifully set up offerings.
He made the altar totally dusty with ashes heaped up. He told
himself: “Bhikshu, don’t be false!”
That day in the upper place of Tingre in Tibet a great yogi,
who had came from India, called Padmapa Sangay heard what
Kadampa Geshe Bengyul had done and said: “Today among all
the people who are making offerings in Tibet, the offering from
Bengyul is the best. Why? Because he put dust and ashes in the
mouth of the eight worldly dharmas, the attachment, he was able
to do that.”
He was extremely, extremely pleased. The admiration was not
for the first beautiful performed offerings, the admiration was for
the second one, putting dust on the offerings.
So Kadampa Geshe Bengyul had renounced the eight worldly
dharmas, the attachment clinging to this life.

MAKE OFFERINGS WITH THE ULTIMATE GOOD

HEART, BODHICITTA
When you make offerings it should not be for just oneself to
achieve happiness of this life or next lives, not even liberation
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 from samsara, nirvana for oneself. It should be done as much as
possible with the ultimate good heart – bodhicitta for all the
sentient beings.
It is said that Buddha doesn’t need beautifully performed
offerings; that making beautifully performed offerings is for you.
So do however you want; you just need to perform them as
beautifully as you can.
Making beautifully performed offerings creates the cause to
have all the holy signs and exemplifications of the holy body of a
Buddha, to achieve that.

MAKE THE OFFERINGS YOURSELF

It is best is to make the offerings with your own hands. If you let
your housekeepers or servants do the offerings, then you don’t
get the merit of having made the offerings with your own hands.
When Lama Atisha was showing the aspect of old age, still, with
his own shaking hands he made all the water offerings.
Lama Atisha said: “If I offer the food and eat it, then do you also
feel full? Do you get the same benefit when I eat the food? So it is
the same when someone else does the offerings for you.

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 6. THESE INSTRUCTIONS APPLY TO ALL
OFFERINGS

This explanation is not only in regards to water bowl offerings;

this is for any offering, all other offerings.

THE BENEFITS OF OTHER OFFERINGS

The benefit of making flower offerings is to have beautiful
bodies while one is in samsara, attractive to others. Then one can
benefit many sentient beings. Also in the future lives; as well as
liberation and full enlightenment.
The benefits of making incense offerings is to have morality,
an ethical life, a pure life, and to cause to achieve that in future
lives.
The benefits of making light offerings is while in samsara to
not be in darkness, to always have light. It also creates the cause
for inner wisdom, dharma wisdom to develop.
It also creates the cause to have clairvoyance in order to
benefit other sentient beings by knowing their past, present and
future lives; and to develop the six clairvoyances.
Hindus can develop the five clairvoyance’s but only Buddha
can develop the six clairvoyances, by ceasing all the defilements.
And also, of course, liberation and full enlightenment.
The benefit of offering torma cake is that in lay life you will
have wealth, inner and outer wealth, and a long life.
The benefits of making music offerings is while in samsara
to be extremely famous to millions of people in the whole world.
For example, the famous singers.
Also to have a sweet voice, sweet chanting, sweet talk and to
be able to attract many millions of people.
Then when one achieves enlightenment one will have all the
qualities of Buddha’s holy speech, the sixty holy tunes of Buddha,
and so forth.
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 COLOPHON

The teachings on the benefits of the Clouds of Offerings mantra

were given at the Mahamudra and Lama Tsong Khapa retreats
and were edited by Ven. Sarah Thresher in Crestone, Colorado,
March 26, 2009, from transcripts by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.
Most of the explanation of the five wrong livelihoods is
according to the teachings of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, who is
an enlightened Heruka yogi.
The teachings on The Power of Truth were dictated in
November 2004 at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California, to
Ven. Matthew Frum and Ven. Gyelten Yarpel.
Edited by Nick Ribush and Kendall Magnussen, December
2004. This extensive version is based on previous commentaries
on The Power of Truth as recalled by the author.
The rest of the teachings were dictated as a letter to the
father of a student, who visited Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s house,
Kachoe Dechen Ling. Written down by Ven. Holly Ansett in
November 2015.
This edition of the compiled teachings was edited and
formatted by Ven. Robina Courtin at Chenrezig Institute in
Queensland, Australia, on April 30, 2016.

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